


These Long Days

by VisionaryGalaxy



Series: A Thousand Futures of Me and You [175]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Boys In Love, Don't copy to another site, Drabble, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Protective Tony Stark, Short & Sweet, Stephen Strange Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-22 05:05:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19660414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VisionaryGalaxy/pseuds/VisionaryGalaxy
Summary: Stephen contemplates all it took to bring them here.





	These Long Days

Stephen watched, quietly, from his place at the edges of the room. The dining hall was abuzz with activity and familiar faces, worn from experiences had and forgotten. This was supposed to be a…celebration of sorts. Not of victory or even human ingenuity but of life and the choices that plague it.

T’Challa had invited everyone of importance surrounding the Snap and then some, a symbolism of thanks from the people of Wakanda and recognition of a bond born out of blood, death, and honor. He was a good man, they all were. Stephen had seen it.

He could also see the invisible line separating the people in this room. Those who sacrificed and had to keep living and those who had slept in the limbo of Thanos’s making. It wasn’t hard to spot, the haunted eyes, the steady gazes, the yearning, and the aching.

Stephen wasn’t sure why he had agreed to come.

No, that wasn’t quite true.

He’d agreed because exhausted brown eyes had pleaded, and sarcastic remarks had challenged. Stephen knew what Tony thought of him hiding away in the aftermath, knew how hard he was trying to meld him into this dysfunctional, beaten family.

He was regretting it though, badly.

Tony was currently across the room, arguing excitably with Shuri while T’Challa looked on with an endearing mix of concern and exasperation, no doubt imagining what grand things would be cooked up between those two minds.

Tony himself looked happy, for the most part. The only betraying any unease as the routine flicker of eyes, ghosting across the room and settling on Stephen, as though reassuring himself. It should reassure Stephen too. It didn’t.

He felt like he was standing in a room of ghosts.

People talking and reacting and smiling and frowning. Snapshots of lives that were and weren’t supposed to be. It was impossible not to feel apart. For so many reasons.

“Strange?”

He glanced to the side, unsurprised to find Natasha Romanov standing next to him with a peculiar expression. Others were glancing this way, trying to be subtle, he’d wondered how long it would take for someone to be brave enough to come up to him.

“Yes?”

He kept his voice low, unthreatening. Stephen was an enigma to them, while they were open books with faded ink and ripped pages, his hands having run over them a thousand times over. He knew everything about them, and they knew only that he’d been responsible for deciding the outcome they were all living in now.

Good ending or not. Power was dangerous. Stephen knew that better than anyone.

“I wanted to say thank you,” she murmured the words, though her eyes held him steadily. He almost smiled at that, almost. “And also fuck you.”

That did earn a startled laugh and she was smiling just a bit, those familiar dark eyes dancing with unspoken relief and confusion, and anger. It was alright, there was no easy emotion to feel after everything he’d done.

“You were brilliant,” he revealed. Natasha would understand, even better than Tony.

The shocked expression was all the confirmation he needed. She could understand the careful strategy and maneuvering he’d done to achieve this outcome and the importance of manipulating the pieces without their knowledge. She was one such piece and he was glad to see she wasn’t offended by it.

Instead, she simply nodded, one more brief smile, and was gone.

Stephen watched her go, noted the way eyes carefully averted themselves. All except two pairs. The first, was Tony of course, watching with weary intent. The second, was Clint, practically vibrating with carefully controlled rage.

Stephen didn’t blame in. He’d certainly had one of the harder paths. He needed to be angry at someone and Stephen didn’t mind it being him.

He went to turn his attention to Peter, watching Tony and Suri with rapt attention, when his eyes caught on another figure. Bucky Barnes. Stephen had a sudden, unpleasant realization.

He was old. Too old. Even older than a man out of his time.

How odd.

Stephen wondered what age metaphysical self is was now. He’d lost track with Dormammu, had been drifted in the Stone for nearly five, and who knows how his peering into Time had adjusted that number.

Maybe that was why Stephen felt so horribly out of place among these people. He knew their entire life stories from font to finish and had orchestrated their futures. He’d seen it all and had lived countless experiences himself. He didn’t belong here.

“Stephen?”

Worried brown eyes looked up into his. Tony had startled him from his increasingly dire thoughts and just like that, as a hand carefully intertwined with his own, they drifted away. “Are you alright?”

Not really, but there wasn’t anything to be done about that. Nothing but time.

“Yes.”

He raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

Stephen smiled.

“We can leave. They won’t even notice we’re gone.”

“We both know that’s not true. I can survive one dinner here.”

Tony squeezed his hand, doubtful, “what did she say?”

“Nothing unexpected.”

“Nothing surprises you.”

“You do.”

Stephen watched the way the lines of his face softened at the admission. It was true, Tony was constantly leaving him in a state of awe. All the lives he’d glimpsed, the actions, and indecision and Tony was the only one that managed to remain unpredictable days in and day out.

It was a relief.

None of his experiences had prepared him for Tony Stark or the intensity of loving him and being loved by him.

“Good,” Tony murmured, leaning up to press a quick kiss to Stephen’s lips.

Stephen, however, didn’t want brief or chaste, and deepened it with a sigh, slipping his tongue along the line of their lips. Tony sunk into it eagerly and it wasn’t until there was a booming laugh from across the room, belonging to Thor, that they pulled away.

Dozens of eyes quickly found looked away.

Stephen found it amusing. Tony’s eyes glittered with a familiar arousal that made Stephen huff in disapproval.

A bell tinkled charmingly through the hall and nearly forty people drifted toward the ornate wooden table. Tony didn’t let go of his hand as they followed and Stephen figured that this wouldn’t be so difficult after all, so long as Tony stayed firmly by his side.


End file.
